History Recap / StarTrekPicardS1E01Remembrance

* TransitionTrack: Music from the Greater Boston scene plays before the shot cuts away from Picard gazing at his vineyard.

* FakeMemories: Played with. Dahj says she remembers her father, a xeno-botanist, who filled their house with orchids and even named one type after her. Picard doesn't discount the memory, saying it is hers and that no one can take it away from her.

** During Picard's interview, the FNN reporter implies that trying to rescue the Romulans from the death of their world was a mistake, as they were the Federation's oldest enemies. Picard hits back that he was trying to save ''lives'', species and history be damned. Starfleet higher-ups evidently agreed with the reporter; after the attack on Mars, they cancelled any further rescue attempts (although the next episode states this was at least partly due to interference from the civilian government).

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Data painted two copies of "Daughter". This foreshadows the fact that Dahj is actually one of twins.

** Zhaban thinks Picard is being overly dramatic when the latter says, "''Bien, à la guillotine, alors''" (Well, to the guillotine, then) before his interview with the Federation News Network reporter.

* HappyFlashback: Picard's dreams of Data; he admits the worst part is waking up as he doesn't want the dream to end.

* INeverToldYouMyName: When Dahj calls her mother and says she tried staying safe with someone but left because she was afraid, her mother tells her to go back to Picard. Dahj is ''immediately'' suspicious, saying she never told her mother who it was she went to see. Her mother gives a lame excuse then gets Dahj to go back to Picard, in a tone that seems to compel Dahj to do so.
* ImmoralJournalist: The FNN reporter that interviews Picard goes back on her word not to bring up his retirement from Starfleet, has an obvious bias against Romulans and synths, and interrupts Picard in the middle of responses to steer the conversation toward her intended topic. Picard eventually bull-rushes her on a live broadcast with a short but brutal TheReasonYouSuckSpeech and ends the interview.

* InterspeciesRomance: Dahj (who believes she's human, but is actually an android) is dating a Xahean.

* MyGodYouAreSerious: Jurati initially believes Picard is joking when he inquires about the creation of an ArtificialHuman.

* MysteriousWaif: Dahj -- with good reason, as she is actually a RidiculouslyHumanRobot.

* NothingUpMySleeve: The double-barreled disruptor pistol is shown deploying from a Romulan commando's arm as he teleports in.
* ObviouslyEvil: The very first shot of Narek is a mysterious, dark figure emerging from a large mist of steam with ominous music playing in the background, and he walks in slow-motion towards the camera with a sinister facial expression. Even before he speaks to Soji, we know he's bad news.

* SuperSpeed: If the audience hasn't guessed it already, a [[RoboticReveal clue to Dahj's nature]] is shown when she does a lighting-fast data search for Picard's location, [[TinmanTypist just like Da]][[RapidFireTyping ta could do]].

* WithMyHandsTied: FacelessGoons teleport into Dahj's apartment, murder her boyfriend and shove a sack over her head so she can be hauled off for interrogation. She proceeds to kill every one of them despite being unable to see.

It's the year 2399. Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Starfleet, retired) grants his first interview in many years, serving also as an InfoDump on the continuity of the "Prime" timeline since last it was seen in 2379. Specifically, when Starfleet became aware of the supernova that threatened Romulus with an EarthShatteringKaboom (see ''ALT'': ''Film/StarTrek2009''), he led a HomeworldEvacuation fleet. However, partway through the evacuation, "synths" attacked and destroyed the Utopia Planitia shipyards on Mars (see ''[[Series/StarTrekDiscovery DST]]:'' "[[Recap/StarTrekDiscoveryShortTreksE10ChildrenOfMars Children of Mars]]"); Starfleet, which [[FantasticRacism never really approved of saving Romulans anyway]], took the opportunity to cancel the whole business, as well as to pass a BanOnAI Picard resigned in protest and answered a CallToAgriculture, returning to Chateau Picard to make wine with the help of two devoted Romulan refugees -- [[HowWeGotHere where the series begins]].

All of this brings him to the attention of Dahj Asha, a MysteriousWaif who shows up at the vineyard one day. She was relaxing with her Xahean boyfriend and celebrating her acceptance to the Daystrom Institute of Technology when masked {{Mooks}} arrived, murdered the boyfriend and tried to abduct her... only for Dahj to experience a TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening and display unprecedented degrees of WaifFu. Seeing Picard's face on live TV (denouncing Starfleet for abandoning the Romulans), she instinctively feels that she can trust him. However, she only stays long enough for a cup of Earl Grey before disappearing, afraid to put him in danger.

Picard experiences a DreamSequence involving his old friend Data attempting to finish a painting of a young woman. Picard visits his storage cubicle to see the original, which Data gifted him during their time together. Data named it "Daughter." The figure looks exactly like Dahj. After she tracks him down again (on a command from her "mother"), Picard explains his belief that she is somehow Data's descendant, and promises to help her. Unfortunately, more assassins arrive; by shattering the helmet off one of them, Dahj reveals them to be Romulan. They are well-equipped too, with lots of {{Ray Gun}}s, TeleportSpam, and a SuicidePill that releases highly-corrosive acid, which one commando combines with a disruptor for [[StuffBlowingUp explosive effect]]. Dahj, despite her unprecedented degrees of WaifFu, [[SurprisinglySuddenDeath does not survive]].

Picard visits the Daystrom Institute, where he meets Dr. Agnes Jurati, the planet's leading cyberneticist -- insofar as that means anything given the Federation's regulations. She explains that she was recruited by Dr. Bruce Maddox (see ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]]'': "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E9TheMeasureOfAMan The Measure of a Man]]"), who pursued his dream of artificial life well past his one GuestStar appearance, but retired after the Mars attack. She shows Picard the remains of B-4 (see ''TNG'': ''Film/StarTrekNemesis''), who was disassembled after Data's attempts to use him as a SoulJar failed, and she explains that, without Noonien Soong's neural nets (and the ''real'' ones, not the early prototype seen in [[MeaningfulName B-4]]), true artificial intelligence has remained beyond the grasp of science. However, Picard shows Dr. Jurati a MementoMacGuffin: Dahj's necklace, which contains the symbol for fractal neuronic cloning, a scientific process Maddox was attempting to perfect and which would, if successful, create a RidiculouslyHumanRobot. Or rather, [[ThereIsAnother two of them]]. Dahj, Dr. Jurati proclaims, must have a twin.

** During the interview, Picard compares the attempted evacuation of Romulus to Dunkirk. Patrick Stewart was born only a month after Dunkirk and his father was one of the soldiers evacuated, although the experience left him with PTSD and caused him to be abusive to Stewart and his mother.

* AnachronismStew: InUniverse -- the ColdOpen takes place on the ''Enterprise''-D, but Picard is much older than he was when he commanded her and Data is wearing the uniform that debuted with the ''Enterprise''-E. Justified as it's AllJustADream.
* ApocalypseHow: Mars suffered a planetary extinction in the [[ApocalypseHow/Class4 Class 4]] to [[ApocalypseHow/Class6 Class 6]] range, depending on what degree of life still hangs on there. When the synths bombed Mars, they ignited the atmosphere, which is still burning to the present day of the episode.

* BanOnAI: Following the [[AIIsACrapshoot synth attack]], Starfleet banned synthetic life. This refers to artificial humans primarily, but it's not made clear if it extends to all forms of synthetic consciousness, such as sapient holograms like [[Series/StarTrekVoyager the Doctor]], as there is a hologram working as the Index at Starfleet Archives.

** One of the assassins kills Dahj's boyfriend with a throwing knife to the chest, which embeds itself perfectly dead-center on his body.

** The episode opens with "Blue Skies", which was the song Data sang at Riker and Troi's wedding reception and which B-4 hummed at the very end of ''Film/StarTrekNemesis''.

* CurbStompBattle: After Dahj activates, it takes a dozen seconds for her to kill three Romulan assassins.

* DoAndroidsDream: When Dahj starts [[TomatoInTheMirror to realize she's an android]], she freaks out, insisting she has to be human because she has memories of her childhood. Picard dismisses her concerns and reassures her that those memories are ''hers'', and that if she is in fact Data's daughter, [[FamilyOfChoice then she is more dear to him than she could imagine.]]

* RealityEnsues: Picard is in his 90s and has been out of Starfleet for fourteen years. When he and Dahj are being chased by Romulan assassins, he's quickly exhausted as the two take the stairs up a large skyscraper.

* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy: The episode {{retcon}}s ''Film/StarTrek2009'', stating that the supernova that destroyed Romulus in 2387 was of the Romulan sun itself, rather than a distant star as the film had implied (and confirmed in the tie-in comic ''Star Trek Countdown''). While this addresses the [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale scale problem]] in the former concept, it introduces the new problem that a star big enough to turn into a Type II supernova would be unlikely to ever have any Earth-like planets around it: larger stars have shorter lifespans and produce more radiation, and the star would expand and incinerate any planets formerly orbiting in their habitable zone millions of years before going nova. (Source material addresses this by hinting that the supernova was in some way not a natural occurrence.)

All of this brings him to the attention of Dahj Asha, a MysteriousWaif who shows up at the vineyard one day. She was relaxing with her Xahean boyfriend and celebrating her acceptance to the Daystrom Institute of Technology when masked {{Mooks}} arrived, murdered the boyfriend and tried to abduct her... only for Dahj to experience a TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening and display unprecedented degrees of WaifFu. Seeing Picard's face on live TV, she instinctively feels that she can trust him. However, she only stays long enough for a cup of Earl Grey before disappearing, afraid to put him in danger.

It's the year 2399. Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Starfleet, retired) grants his first interview in many years, serving also as an InfoDump on the continuity of the "Prime" timeline since last it was seen in 2379. Specifically, when Starfleet became aware of the supernova that threatened Romulus with an EarthShatteringKaboom (see ''ALT'': ''Film/StarTrek2009''), he led a HomeworldEvacuation fleet. However, partway through the evacuation, "synths" attacked and destroyed the Utopia Planitia shipyards on Mars (see ''[[Series/StarTrekDiscovery DST]]:'' "[[Recap/StarTrekDiscoveryShortTreksE10ChildrenOfMars Children of Mars]]"); Starfleet, which [[FantasticRacism never really approved of saving Romulans anyway]], took the opportunity to cancel the whole business, as well as to pass a BanOnAI. Picard resigned in protest and answered a CallToAgriculture, returning to Chateau Picard to make wine with the help of two devoted Romulan refugees -- [[HowWeGotHere where the series begins]].

-->'''Picard''': You can tell me if it is possible to make a sentient android out of flesh and blood.\\

* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: The episode starts with a rendition of "Blue Skies" that's quickly revealed to be playing in Ten-Forward in Picard's dream.

* TheBladeAlwaysLandsPointyEndIn: One of the assassins kills Dahj's boyfriend with a throwing knife to the chest, which embeds itself perfectly dead-center on his body.

* DiesWideOpen: After Dahj defeats the commandos in her apartment, she finds the corpse of her boyfriend in this state.

* DutchAngle: In the DreamSequence, the camera tilts diagonally shortly after Picard begins gasping in fear.

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Dissolved by acid ''and'' blown up by an overloading rifle? The Zhat Vash ''really'' wanted Dahj eliminated, didn't they?

* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy: The episode {{retcon}}s ''Film/StarTrek2009'', stating that the supernova that destroyed Romulus in 2387 was of the Romulan sun itself, rather than a distant star as the film had implied (and confirmed in the tie-in comic ''Star Trek Countdown''). While this addresses the [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale scale problem]] in the former concept, it introduces the new problem that a star big enough to turn into a Type II supernova would be unlikely to ever have any Earth-like planets around it: larger stars have shorter lifespans and produce more radiation, and the star would expand and incinerate any planets formerly orbiting in their habitable zone millions of years before going nova.

* HeartbeatSoundtrack: Dahj's hearbeat is heard briefly after the commandos place a bag over her head.

* TransitionTrack: Music from the Greater Boston scene is heard before the shot cuts away from Picard gazing at his vineyard.